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We are not our own any more than what we possess is our own. We did not make ourselves, we cannot be supreme over ourselves. We are not our own masters. We are God's property. Is it not our happiness thus to view the matter? Is it any happiness or any comfort, to consider that we are our own?

— John Henry Newman Brave New World (1932)

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More quotes by John Henry Newman

In a higher world it is otherwise; but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.

An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845)

Good is never done except at the expense of those who do it: truth is never enforced except at the sacrifice of its propounders.

Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England (1851)

Nothing would be done at all, if a man waited till he could do it so well, that no one could find fault with it.

Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England (1851)

It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain.

The Idea of a University (1873)

Where good and ill together blent,
Wage an undying strife.

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Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

When the mind is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, it withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God.

Basil of Caesarea

Once you accept the existence of God — however you define him, however you explain your relationship to him — then you are caught forever with his presence in the center of all things.

Morris West The Clowns of God (1981)

God seeks comrades and claims love,
the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.

Rabindranath Tagore Fireflies (1928)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Henry Newman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.